VITAL SIGNS: RISK; For Men, Low Estrogen Level Puts Hips in Peril

By Nicholas Bakalar

Published: May 16, 2006

Older men with low levels of estrogen are at greater risk for hip fractures, a new study reports, and those with low levels of both estrogen and testosterone are at the greatest risk of all.

Researchers at Boston University and the Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston examined 793 men with an average age of 71 at the beginning of the research. The participants, followed by these researchers for almost 20 years, were part of the long-term Framingham Heart Study.

Their total levels of testosterone and estradiol, an estrogen hormone, were measured at the start, and by the end of the study, 39 men had suffered hip fractures stemming from minor accidents like falls.

After adjusting for age, body mass index, height and smoking status, the scientists found no correlation between testosterone levels and hip fracture. But men with the lowest estrogen levels were three times as likely to suffer fractures as those with the highest levels. Men with the lowest levels of both estrogen and testosterone had a risk more than six times as great as those with higher levels of both hormones.

The study appears in the May issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

Men and women produce estrogen and testosterone, though in different proportions. The study, said Dr. Shreyasee Amin, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, ''provides further evidence on the important role of estrogens in bone health for men, just as it is for women.''